Creekside Flowers & Gifts
by GentlemanAdventurer
Summary: It was a good thing Hannah had the presence of mind to hide in her room after the prank, rather than running outside. Instead, everyone returned home safe and alive and life continued on, in boring and predictable ways. Hannah often wished there were more adventures; working at Creekside Flowers & Gifts wasn't at all how she'd imagined wasting the best years of her life.


A/N: So this was in response to some requests for a happy story involving all the kids (since Broken Parable is pretty rough on all of them). Essentially, it's an Everyone Lives AU where Hannah didn't run outside after the prank and therefore none of them died. This is going to take place over the course of about a year in-story and will cover how their lives unfold. Tons of ships are relevant to various degrees, including Mike/Hannah, Matt/Hannah, unrequited Jess/Emily, Sam/Beth, Emily/Beth, and Josh/Jessica. I'm mentioning them all so that if any of them are a hard pass for you as a reader, you can skip it.

 **June:**

 **New Old Friends**

"Okay, look. All I'm saying is that romantic comedies totally lied to me about what this would be like." Hannah slumped forward on the counter, letting her head rest against the cool glass. It was air conditioned in the shop—the one consistently good thing about the job—but the glass still felt nice. "And not just movies. Books lied to me too."

Her sister set a paper cup down on the surface beside her with a laugh. "Han, you _wanted_ this job. You told me you would kill for this job. Drama queen."

Hannah grabbed the coffee without looking and raised her head, glaring sullenly at Beth through the loose black hair that fell across her face. She blew a strand of it away from her mouth and took a sip. "I know. But I also thought there'd be more to it. Like that whole 'language of flowers' thing. That's so _cool_. Why does no one care? Jenny doesn't even care and she owns the stupid shop. It's a totally missed opportunity."

"Maybe you should start your own business. 'Floral Cryptography: Send sneaky messages to your loved ones.'"

"And yet it'd still just be people wanting stock, last minute bouquets for dates and stuff." Hannah groaned and took another long drink. "I'll just suffer in silence."

Beth grinned and raised her eyebrows. "Silent? You?"

As the older—by one minute and 42 seconds—and obviously far more mature twin, Hannah threw a paperclip at Beth.

The other girl leaned into a display of roses and breathed deeply. "You still get to work with flowers."

Despite her complaints, Hannah really couldn't disagree with that. She smiled softly and took another sip. Her coffee was sweet and warm and creamy. Totally perfect. "Was Sam there when you got the coffees? Did she say anything about her break?"

"You didn't notice what she wrote?" Beth leaned over the counter and pulled the cup from Hannah's hand to remove the cardboard sleeve. Without it, the barista's identity was obvious. Hannah snatched the cup back and turned it, laughing as she read the black permanent marker scribbled all around it.

 _My lady the most fabulous Hannah who has terrible taste in coffee and insists on way more sugar than any human should consume and will probably get diabetes by the end of this but at least she'll go out smiling and Alex is glaring at me because I'm taking too long to write this so I'll see you later. Break at 2? XOXO_

"Oh my _god_."

"Alex really was getting pissed at her. It was slow though. He had nothing to really be mad about."

"I think he has a crush on Sam."

"Who doesn't?"

"Ew. I don't."

Beth smirked. "Good. I don't think it would be good for us to compete for her affection." She stretched and sighed. "I should go. Homework."

"You… oh my god, Beth. You just fucking graduated. Can you calm down for five minutes? You do not have homework. It's summer."

Her sister wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Oh no. No, you didn't. You didn't do some of that weird academic stalker stuff, did you?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Uh, yes you absolutely do. You did something weird, like when you talked to Ash's older brother and got the reading list for Honors Brit Lit and then pre-read everything ahead of time."

Beth's cheeks went red. "I should go." She grabbed her bag and headed for the door.

"What did you dooooooooooo?" Hannah called after her sister, dragging out the last syllable in a sing-song voice. She laughed as the bell on the door rang merrily. "What a dork."

Alone in the shop, Hannah turned up her music. There wasn't too much to do at this point. She'd already taken stock of the new flowers, misted the ferns, checked and changed the water on the pre-assembled bouquets, and had no orders to assemble. Truthfully, it was kind of nice to have some calm after the rush of graduation orders. At least her parents had had the decency not to order her or her siblings any flowers.

Hannah grabbed some paper from the back of the printer and rummaged in a drawer until she found the colored pencils. One of the nicest things about the job was the freedom to play with color and design arrangements. She wasn't allowed to actually design for clients yet, but Jenny was super encouraging with the ideas she showed her. They'd gotten in some gorgeous golden Alstroemeria. She held up colors until she found a decent match.

Layering the gold down, she shaded it with an orange to get exact match. "Ugh. So pretty," she mumbled, looking around the shop at the other things they had. The little purple Statice would be a little weird, but she liked the color combination. She added that.

It was fun, like putting together a puzzle without looking at the picture on the box. One of the cheap carnation bundles had dropped a blossom, probably from someone manhandling them as they tried to pick the right bunch. Hannah stretched down to grab it and tucked it behind her ear, pinning it in place with the arm of her glasses.

"I wanna hold your ha-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaaaand," she sang, twirling as she returned to her drawing. "I wanna hold your hand!" Hannah knew she couldn't sing. That was the other good thing about being alone in the shop—no one to look at her funny or give her shit about it.

She glanced at the clock. Jenny was supposed to start the new person today, to give them time to get trained and ready before the next holiday rush. It would be kind of nice to have a new employee, Hannah thought. It would mean that she already wasn't the newest one. It always sucked being at the bottom of the hierarchy, so any boost would be nice. Not that Jenny was a bad boss or that any of her other coworkers were mean to her, but still. It would be nice to be the one with answers rather than the one always asking questions.

As if on cue, the bell rang at the front again. She waved to Jenny as she came in. "Hey. New guy here today?"

"Should be. Has it been busy?"

Hannah laughed and gestured around at the empty shop. "Terribly. I could hardly handle the rush."

Her boss wagged her finger at her and tried to look stern. "No sass." She couldn't keep it up though and smiled. "I have him scheduled for 2:30. We'll be going over the checklist and doing the tour. You up for covering while we do that?"

"Of course." She checked the clock again. It was almost 2. "Should I break now, then?"

"Sure."

The best part of the job wasn't working with beautiful bursts of color every day. It wasn't getting to draw or play her own music. No, the very best thing about the job was its location. Hannah took the remainder of her coffee and headed for the back.

Wedging a piece of cardboard in the door to hold it open, she emerged into the alleyway behind the shop. It wasn't very impressive and, since the garbage guys hadn't come by yet, it smelled a little bit. She leaned against the rough brick of the building and drained her beverage. The alleyway was bordered on both sides by the back doors of all the businesses on this street and the next one over.

And two doors down and across the way was the absolute best door.

Sam burst through it and into the bright afternoon sun. "Victory! I made it to break without murdering a single person!"

"I admire your restraint. Is my sister in there?"

Scoffing, Sam waved off the thought. "No, she went to go study. I guess she managed to find some old syllabi—syllabuses? Whatever—for the classes she's got in the fall and she wants to do a bunch of the reading."

"What a nerd."

"You said it." Sam stifled a dreamy little smile and Hannah snorted. They were almost sickeningly cute. Or at least that's what Hannah told herself to make herself feel better about not having that.

She wondered what Mike was up to now that they'd graduated, then immediately quashed the thought. No. She wasn't going to do that. It was officially summer. She was officially out of high school. She was officially moving on. God, she'd barely even been able to meet his eyes after they all came back from the lodge; she was so horrified she'd fallen for Jess's stupid prank. Even thinking about it now put her stomach in knots.

Rolling the empty cup between her hands, she returned to a safer topic.

"Coffee was good today, by the way."

"Glad you liked it. I just thought to myself: 'Is this sweet enough for a normal person? Yes? Then I better add more syrup.'" Sam laughed as Hannah kicked her shin lightly. "I seriously don't know how you do it though. Ew."

"What are you talking about? Your stupid soy milk is already sweet to begin with."

"Which is why I definitely don't want more sugar. If I could get them to order the unsweetened, not-vanilla-flavored soy milk, I would."

Hannah made a face. "No flavor."

"I like the flavor of actual espresso. Sue me."

She just screwed up her face even more, letting her nostrils flare and her mouth twist. Then she broke and grinned. "Snob."

They didn't always work at the same time and they definitely didn't always get to break simultaneously, but it was awesome anyway. Hannah knew it was a little selfish, but she liked getting some time with Sam where it was just the two of them. She certainly didn't begrudge Beth her relationship—though god _damn_ she wanted someone who looked at her the way Sam looked at Beth—but a teeny part of her was still bummed that she lost out on some of her best friend time.

"So is Beth stealing you away tonight or do you want to go catch a movie? They're showing old movies at the Roxy."

"I… uh… can't."

"Wait, why not?" If it was Beth, Sam would just say so. Hannah's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Sam, why?"

Sam fidgeted. She was a terrible liar, Hannah knew, so most of the time she'd just try to avoiding answering questions she didn't want to answer. Well, that just wouldn't fly. "Sam, if you don't tell me, I will show your mom the pictures."

"You _wouldn't_."

"I absolutely would. Best friend rules. You have to tell me."

"I'm… I'm going to go play with this band. Just as a trial run. You know? See if it… see if it works okay."

"Sam!" Hannah threw her arms around the blonde. "That's great! I can't believe you weren't going to tell me!"

"It's probably going to be a disaster."

Hannah waved that thought off. "It's going to be great. You have to text me and tell me how it goes. It's going to be awesome. I'm glad you're finally putting yourself out there." She checked her watch. "I've got to get back. Meet the new guy and cover the counter while Jenny starts training."

Sam saluted her. "Good luck and god speed."

"Ugh. You sound like Josh."

"No…" Sam cleared her throat and put on a terrible John Wayne impression. "God speed, pilgrim. Now I do."

Shuddering hard, Hannah made a face at her and headed back inside. She heard Jenny laugh and say something up front and smiled. First impressions, right? And this time, Hannah could be the cool one, the girl who knew what she was doing, who was in control. She brushed her fingers over the flower in her hair, pleased. She even looked cute for once.

"Hi! I'm Han—" She broke off as she emerged from the workroom.

Matt Taylor gave her an awkward wave. "Uh… Hey Hannah."

"Oh!" Jenny looked delighted. "Do you two know each other?"

"Yeah," Hannah said flatly. "We've met."

-o-

Sam stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. She looked the same, she knew that objectively, but she felt like she looked different. Would people be able to look at her and know she was in a band? She didn't have a leather jacket. Should she get a leather jacket? Well, fake leather.

She didn't even know how to tell Beth. It felt unreal. It felt like something she had made up to make herself feel better. Looking down at her phone, though, the words of the email stared back at her in stark, glowing black and white. _We'd love to have you play with us._

 _Love_

 _Play_

 _You_

 _With us_

"What are you doing?" she asked her reflection, annoyed with herself. She should be thrilled, shouting it from the rooftops and telling everyone. But it still seemed foolish, like she was jinxing herself. They'd liked her guitar, but even more than that, they'd liked her voice. It was there in writing, the second paragraph in: _soulful, classically-inspired vocals_. In her wildest dreams, she'd never really thought they would want her. She was just an 18-year-old nobody who didn't have any real training.

At least, she didn't think singing along to your aunt's jazz CDs counted as training.

Rehearsals were Wednesday and Thursday nights, to fit with everyone's schedules, and they often played on Fridays and Saturdays. She'd have to talk to Alan. She only had one shift that conflicted right now and she was pretty sure he'd be okay with her switching it around. It might get tougher when school started, but… she wanted this. She really, really wanted this.

That was part of why she was so afraid to tell Beth.

How did you tell your brilliant, genius, going-places girlfriend that the thing you wanted the most was to be in a little jazz folk band that was barely known outside of their friends and family? She was being silly though, right? It was Beth. Beth had never been anything but supportive and encouraging. She yanked the tie from her hair and pulled it back again tighter. That was part of the problem. Beth would always tell her she loved her and supported her. Hell, Sam could probably tell Beth that she wanted to be a professional bass fisherman and Beth would gush about it being a great idea. What if it all was just Sam deluding herself and Beth was just too nice to say anything?

"Tell Hannah, at least, you dummy." She'd just told Hannah that it had gone okay and that she was waiting to hear back. It had taken some doing, but finally Hannah had stopped bugging her about it. Sam studied her eyes, the way she looked wary and nervous and ready to bolt, and sighed. "Nope. Saying it out loud doesn't help. Great."

-o-

Hannah still lay awake at night sometimes thinking about what had happened. How had she ever let herself be so stupid? She knew what Mike's handwriting looked like! Or, at least, she knew what Jess's writing looked like and it looked nothing like Mike's. Hannah felt so stupid every time she thought about it.

And she'd just immediately started getting undressed! How fucking stupid did she have to be? It made her want to punch stuff, but knowing her, she'd probably just end up breaking her hand and crying in front of all the cool kids.

It was like the whole night was carved into her memory. She wished she'd had more to drink that night. Then she could blame the alcohol for what she did or maybe she'd have had enough to not really remember what happened. Maybe she could forget the way Jess had snorted and the derision in her voice. _Oh my god, she's taking her shirt off!_ Mike hadn't even suggested that. He'd just said they should make out—which was even worse, since she could have gotten a kiss from him.

Part of her hated herself for wishing she'd done that, but she would have at least been kissed by Mike. It hadn't been his idea, after all. Probably just stupid Emily and Jess egging him on and forcing him into it.

The worst bit was realizing she was being filmed. And by Matt, of all people. She'd thought they were friends.

Obviously she'd been wrong.

He'd been working in the shop for about a week and he was good at it. That seemed so unfair. At the very least, he should have the decency to be absolutely awful at his new job. She folded her arms over her chest and watched stonily as he pulled the wilting Amaranthus stems from the local bouquets. Matt glanced at her and she looked away.

"I'm going to… I'm going to work on a Fourth of July arrangement design." Hannah grabbed her papers and started to draw, scribbling distractedly. It was hard to relax with him there.

"You should add sparklers!" She glanced up at him and his tentative smile faded. "I just mean… fireworks. And stuff. Never mind."

She glared down at the page. Sparklers. Like a dumb joke would make up for the fact that he'd been holding the camera in the most embarrassing moment of her entire life. Her brain kept repeating the word over and over again. Sparklers, sparklers, sparklers, sparklers. "Aster," she muttered.

From the corner of her eye she saw his head come up and he opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and kept working. Aster, though. Asters did look kind of like fireworks: little thin petals exploding every which way. It wasn't a bad idea. She didn't want to go for the obvious and just pick red, white, and blue flowers. Asters would be a good alternative. She could use white ones and set them against dark green Cocculus. "Aster and Delphinium and those gradient roses, if Jenny can get them again." The colors looked good as she got them down on the paper.

Her drawings tended towards strange, almost abstract expressions of the flowers, but somehow it still translated in her head. She could get down the color and general shape and it all just came together into this piece that probably wouldn't mean anything to anyone else.

It probably wouldn't even look good as an actual arrangement. Hannah had the sneaking suspicion that everyone in the shop was just humoring her ideas anyway.

"Hey, Han?" Her head shot up again and he shuffled awkwardly. "—nah. Hannah. Um… What do you want me to work on now?"

"I don't know. Sweep something." Bossing him around made her feel a little better. Not that she was his boss by any stretch, but he did defer to her judgement in the shop, which helped. Slightly.

The bell jangled and both of them turned to the door. Her customer service smile sprang to her face, ready to go, but it was just Beth. She relaxed into a real smile. "Oh hey. Visiting Sam again?"

"Can't I just be visiting my sister?"

"You could, but you aren't." She looked pointedly at the cup in Beth's hand. "Subtle."

"Hey! I got you one too." Beth caught sight of Matt and her eyes widened. "Um, hi? You work here now?"

"Since last week. It's good to see you, Beth. It's been a while."

Hannah snorted as she popped the lid off her drink to let it cool. "Yeah, like, a whole three weeks or something. Such a long time. Practically ages."

"Wow. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." The warning look Beth shot her was familiar. It was the one Beth always used, whenever she thought Hannah was going too far, being too emotional. Hannah scowled at her and Beth turned back to Matt. "How have you been?"

He adjusted his apron and shrugged. That was the other unfair thing, Hannah thought bitterly. He should look silly in the apron, but somehow the black cloth always seemed to go with his outfit and he wore it with an unconcerned ease. At least he wasn't trying to wear his stupid letter jacket to work. She didn't need to be reminded of high school any more than she already was. She tried to not listen to her sister being a traitor and kept layering in more flowers to her design.

"I've been good. Getting ready for school. Mom's going a little nuts, trying to make sure I'm all stocked on stuff. She just bought an actual case of protein bars for me to keep in my room. I'm not even moving for another two months, but she's convinced we have to do all this now."

Beth laughed. "Yeah, I get that. I can't wait to get started though. I'm surprised you're working here. Didn't you get a scholarship?"

"Only partial." Sneaking a glance at him, Hannah saw his face fall as he said it and felt a pang of sympathy. He shook his head and smiled again. "It's okay. It's enough. And I'll work here part time and take loans to cover the rest. It'll be worth it. This is a pretty sweet gig, too. The boss is nice. She's willing to work around my practices and classes."

"Yeah, Jenny seems great. And you get to work with my awesome sister!" Beth raised her eyebrows at Hannah, who decidedly did _not_ look directly at her. "She's great when she's not being a total butt."

Matt shrugged again and crossed to grab a broom from behind the counter. "It's fine. I like working with Hannah." She saw him look at her and then away again quickly. "It's nice to get to see her again. I'm hoping I can get her to go running with me again some time."

"Dude! Yes, you should totally do that, Han. You haven't been running at all lately."

"Um, because I've been _working_."

"Wait, Han—" Her twin came over and pulled the paper with her arrangement sketch towards her. "What is this? This is really cool."

She yanked it back and pulled her binder out from under the counter. "It's just a design idea for some flowers. I get bored." Hannah could feel herself going red. She hated that she did that so easily. "It's nothing. Jenny and Sara do it all the time. It's just a thing. Helps you visualize."

"Oh. Okay." Beth gave her the you're-crazy-reign-it-in look again, but backed off. "Sorry. It just looked neat. So," she turned back to Matt. "What are you studying?"

"Well, I'm mostly focused on football. I'm undecided right now but I talked to Mr. Arnolds and I think I might look into Kinesiology. Seems interesting."

"Ooh yeah. That's a good idea! I bet it'd go really well with the sports stuff too."

Hannah tried to ignore them with limited success.

-o-

Something was bothering Sam. To someone who had grown up dealing with Bob and Melinda Washington—not to mention Josh—it was almost laughably obvious. But just knowing that something was bugging her wasn't enough to fix the issue. If Beth just asked her about it, there was a chance Sam would lock it up even tighter. It was better to just wait for her to say it herself.

Beth tapped the end of her pen against the pages of the book. She loved the feeling of getting ahead on stuff and, if she was totally honest with herself, she was more than a little nervous that if she didn't, she was going to fall apart in the autumn. Yeah, she'd been successful in school, but that was just high school. It seemed intensely hubristic to assume that she would be able to excel in college with that same amount of energy. She was technically down as a history major, but so far she was thinking about pursuing law after that. And that was the kind of thing she could change later on if she wanted. After all, it'd mostly be the general classes to start.

She was a little nervous about going to a different school than Sam, but it would be fine. It wasn't that far. She'd be able to visit on weekends pretty easily, especially if she took the train. Plus, she could study on the train. It'd be an efficient use of her time.

The thought made her laugh. Good lord, she was predictable. Sam had once stolen her glasses from her bedside table and put on a silly voice, pretending to be Beth. "I'm Beth," she'd said, grabbing a book off the shelf and waving it around. "Study study work work work. I can only have fun if it's in carefully scheduled increments! Look at that! I'm already behind by 15 seconds!"

Beth had immediately pointed out that since she hardly ever wore her glasses, Sam was really doing a terribly misguided Hannah impression.

In retrospect, though, the impression was pretty spot-on. She glanced at where Sam was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "You okay?"

Sam looked over and flashed her a quick smile. "Yeah. I'm good" She looked back up at the ceiling, her voice soft. "Keep studying."

-o-

It was her day off and yet somehow she was still there. Well, not _there_ there. She was in Sam's café, doodling and nursing an iced tea. It seemed kind of dumb in this area when she didn't have to be, but she just had to get out of her house. It was driving her crazy, listening to her parents talk about the fall.

All three of them would be going off to school, but Hannah was starting to feel kind of left out. Beth and Josh were both going to schools that required freshmen to stay in their dorms, so there were lots of trips picking out mini fridges and bedding and all kinds of ridiculous stuff that Hannah definitely wasn't jealous about. She was going to move out. Just not to a stupid dorm.

She pulled some black pens from her bag and started lining and shading the sketch in ink. She liked drawing strangers. It was fun to try to capture the things that made them stand out, and everyone had something. Even the people that seemed forgettable at first glance. She was careful, though. Sometimes people didn't really react well to being drawn. They would leave or, worse, they might ask to see her sketch. The rule she'd come up with was that if she made eye contact with the person more than once, she stopped. Once was accidental, twice became obvious, and a third time was inexcusable.

Hannah glanced up at her mystery model and found they were looking at her too. She took a sip of her drink and looked away, embarrassed. That was eye contact number two. Time for a new subject to draw.

"Hey Pickles. What's up?" Josh slid into the chair across from her.

"Don't call me that."

"Nope!" He said cheerfully. "I thought I'd find you here. Is Sam even working today?"

She shook her head. "Not until later. But I like coming here. It's nice. They actually ask me if I want a real mug." He gave an impressed whistle and she shot him a dirty look. "Don't make fun of me. I like that. They don't just assume I want everything to go."

"Can I see that?" Josh gestured to her notebook. If she said no, she knew there was a good chance he'd just steal it anyway, so she shoved it across the table to him. She drank some of her iced tea and tried not to think about him looking at her stuff. He smiled and she braced herself. "This is pretty good, Pickles. Is it that girl by the window?"

Hannah jerked her head in an approximation of a nod. "Just doodling."

"Well I think it's cool." His eyes focused on something over her shoulder and he tipped his head to the side, frowning slightly. "Is that Jess?"

She jumped in her seat and looked towards the counter. The blonde girl had her back to them, wiping down the syrup bottles. There was something familiar about her, but it couldn't be Jess. Anxiety twisted in her throat. Jess couldn't be here. Sam would have told her. So that Hannah could have never come here again. She didn't want to see that bitch.

Then the girl turned and her worst fears were confirmed. It was indeed Jessica Riley. Somehow, she managed to look like a coffee shop add, her hair in two braided pigtails and her smile bright and perfectly, almost exquisitely friendly. She said something to the guy working the cash register and laughed, her hands flying as she tamped espresso down to pull a shot.

Hannah spun back, her heart pounding. It was so unfair. There was nowhere she could go that wasn't tainted by the memory of her humiliation. And Jess.. Jess had been the ringleader. She was the one who'd come up with the whole idea. Hannah knew Beth had chewed Jessica out afterwards—they were friends, after all—but knowing that didn't make it go away. It was still Jessica's voice in her head. _Oh my god, she's taking her shirt off!_

Cold fingers closed around hers and she looked up at Josh. He squeezed her hand sympathetically. "Don't let her make you feel bad."

"I don't."

"Liar."

"I—I don't." Yeah, no, she was definitely lying. She gave Josh a trembling, uncertain smile. "I don't know why it bugs me so much."

"Because it was a shitty thing for them to do. Like, intensely, exorbitantly shitty. Shit-tastic. Shit-credible. Shit-cellent."

She snorted mockingly. "Shit-cellent?"

"Like excellent."

"You were really scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one."

Josh grinned. "Worth it. But seriously. It's okay that you're super upset about it still. Don't let her get to you though. I bet she feels bad about what happened."

"Sure. And I won the lottery and got into Harvard."

"Yeah, it is kind of a long-shot. But I bet she does actually have a soul under the giggles somewhere." He hesitated. "Maybe."

It made her laugh and some of the tension in her eased. "I still can't believe she's working here. And Matt's at Creekside. It's like I just can't get away from high school."

"Sadly, I think that's the problem with living somewhere like L.A. Too many good schools and stuff right here. Lots of people were going to stick around." Josh stole her drink and she stuck her tongue out at him. "You could always move across the planet. Join the Peace Corp or something."

"They want people with actual, useful skills. Trust me. I checked into it."

"Seriously?"

She nodded. "And teaching abroad and becoming a hobo on a train."

"They require train hobos to have useful skills?"

"Shut up. You know what I mean."

This time when he squeezed her hand, she squeezed back. He smiled at her. "You've got two options. Either she does have a soul in there and on some level regrets what happened, in which case you can continue to come here and know that you're making her feel even more guilty every time she sees you, or she's a heartless bitch, in which case you can continue to come here and prove to her that you don't care what she thinks. Seems like a win-win to me. Plus, it means you can still come here, since you like it so much."

"I suppose if Sam's around, she can't be that bad. Sam would punch her in the nose."

"Eh." Josh rubbed his chin in mock thoughtfulness. "I think she'd pull her hair. That seems more like Sam to me."

Hannah grinned at the mental image. "Then you obviously don't know Sam that well. She's a puncher, not a hair-puller."

"I mean, either way you have some white knights available to rescue you if it comes to it."

It was a comforting thought. "So why are you here? To annoy me, steal my tea, and give me life advice?"

"Would you believe me if I said I just wanted to get away from Mom and Dad?"

"Oh, I definitely believe it. They're ridiculous right now. What is it this time, what laptop case you should have for school?"

Her brother groaned and ran his fingers through his messy black hair. "You're so lucky. I should have opted out like you did." He let his head fall down with a thunk and Hannah quickly moved her notebook and drink out of the way before he knocked anything over.

"I didn't 'opt out.'"

"Yeah, you did. You basically just sort of told them to shove it and did your own thing."

She sighed and sat back in her chair, folding her arms over her chest. "Sure. Going to community college is doing my own thing. I'm such a free spirit. Peace and love and all that junk."

Josh groaned again, the sound muffled by the table. "Dad's just being insufferable about me going to his alma mater. Fuck. To hear him talk, I'm following in his exact footsteps. Kill me."

"I thought you wanted to make movies."

"Yeah, but not like he does. All his boring gore shockfest torture porn… horror used to be art. Now it's… it's like popcorn. Fun, but it doesn't do anything real. No nutritional value."

"So just play along and you'll get to learn how to make meatloaf."

"Meatloaf?"

"Prime rib. Black bean burgers. Something filling. Something… this metaphor is getting weird, Josh. Just go along with it. They're paying for you to go to a great school. Just put up with them for a little while longer and then you'll be in the dorm and you can ignore their calls as much as you want." Hannah drew a little spiral on the corner of the paper. "At least you aren't a disappointment."

He grunted. "Give it a month. I'm sure I'll be the least favorite child again soon." Josh rolled his head to the side and looked up at her pathetically. "I'm thirsty, Pickles."

"So?"

"Will you get me a drink?"

Hannah swallowed hard and glanced back at the counter. Jess was still there and it was too early for Sam. "No."

"C'mon…" He stuck his lower lip out. "Show her you aren't scared of her."

"I'm not."

"Sure seems like you are…"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you really think that'll work on me?"

"I don't know. Will it?"

Shoving back from the table, she glared at him. "Fine. Jerk. I'm getting you a hot chocolate."

His head shot up and he stared at her in horror. "What? No! It's a thousand degrees outside."

"Tough luck. You want me to get it for you, then you're at my mercy. Buttface."

She left while she still had the last word. It wasn't the wittiest last word in history, but it would do. Tugging down her shirt and patting her hair quickly to make sure it hadn't somehow exploded into a disaster in the last ten seconds, she approached the counter, heart in her throat. She would not be bested by Jessica-stupid-Riley.

Jess wasn't even looking her way as she walked up. She was busy rinsing out a plastic blender pitcher in the sink. Hannah took a deep breath and addressed the guy at the register. "Hi. Can I get a 16 ounce iced black tea, sweetened, and…" Okay, she wouldn't be that cruel to Josh. "…and a toddy."

"Can I get a name?"

"Hannah."

The blonde girl straightened and turned, her face breaking out in a wide smile. "Hannah! Oh wow. Sam said you worked near here. You work with Matt, right? At the flower shop?"

Hannah stared at her, taken aback by the rush of friendliness. She nodded, unsure how to respond. Instead she turned back to the cashier. "Um… how much do I owe you?"

"$4.75."

The other girl's face fell, but she seemed to shake it off. "Anyway, um… It's good to see you Hannah. I'll see you around, I guess."

Shrugging and giving her another half-hearted nod, Hannah signed her receipt and headed back to the table. "I'm going to kill you," she hissed to Josh. "And _you_ get to go get the drinks when they're ready."

He raised both hands in defeat. "Fine. That's fair." He hesitated, then gave her a knowing little smile. "You did good, though."

Slumping back into her chair, she scowled at him. "I guess so."

-o-

Emily could not wait to move out. She was ready. She was beyond ready. She'd already sorted her books and packed her things and now they just sat in boxes in the corner of her room, taunting her. Two more months. Two months until freedom and classes and a whole new set of people to interact with.

Joy.

She honestly couldn't say whether she hoped there would be someone she knew there. She hadn't really asked around about who was going to what school and no one had really volunteered the information to her. God, she really missed talking to Jess. Plus, Jess knew everything about everyone, so she would definitely know if Emily was going to see any familiar faces.

And yet that was the one person she really couldn't talk to. It wasn't fair to Jess, not after what they'd talked about and what she'd said.

Pressing her pillow over her face, Em let out a short, frustrated scream and then crossed the room to her boxes. She yanked open the top one and pulled out the first book she found. It was a book on genetics that Jess had teased her mercilessly for reading without a class requiring it. It would do.

-o-

The first summer of true freedom was turning out to be an incredibly boring one. Mike blamed the heat. It made everyone want to just lie around naked in front of their air conditioners.

No, he took that one back. That at least would be interesting. Not that he really wanted to see everyone naked—a mental image of a naked Coach Diaz flashed through his head and he winced—but the novelty of it would be entertaining. People just didn't want to do anything at all. He tried to get people together to go to the beach and no one even wanted to do _that_.

Lounging by his parents' pool, he felt like he was going to burn to a crisp. Someone had to be doing something. Anything. At all. He was easy. _That's what she said – hey-oh!_ He thumbed through people on his phone. Em probably didn't want to hear from him. Scratch that, he was absolutely sure that she didn't. She'd been nice enough when she'd dumped him, but with Emily there was a different scale for niceness to meanness. By Emily-standards, she'd been pretty sensitive about it, but a random observer might have thought it was a little harsh.

"You just aren't right for me. Sorry. I'm going away soon and I just don't think there's any point in us dragging this out."

Mike had shrugged and agreed because what else was he supposed to do? It wasn't like he could talk Emily out of it. She was way too strong-willed for that and he didn't want to be with someone who didn't want to be with him anyway.

And so he entered the summer single as well as bored. Awesome.

Well, Jess would probably be up for something. In fact, sometimes he couldn't even keep up with her. But better to die having some kind of adventure than to sit in the sun until he burst into flames. He texted her.

 _Bored._

 _Bored-bored-bored bored-bored._

It took about twenty minutes for her to respond. He'd given up being poolside and gone indoors, collapsing face-first onto his bed. The fan overhead clicked as it spun. It was like torture or something. Then his phone buzzed.

He could practically hear her voice as he read her response: _Sounds like a personal problem_

 _Have mercy on a poor man. Let's go rip it up. Do something crazyballs._

 _I'm working. U know, some of us actually have jobs?_

He ignored the sarcasm and jumped at the unspoken suggestion. _Let me come visit! Please? I'm dying here. Seriously. Dead._

An eye-roll emoji. She sent him an eye-roll. He really, desperately hoped that wasn't a no.

 _Morning Commute. On Dixon. Don't get me fired._

He couldn't suppress his grin. _I will try my very hardest, oh flaxen-haired savior of mine._

 _Ugh. Already regretting this._


End file.
